"Please, Ms. Hathaway, whenever you're ready."

Instantaneously, I rolled my eyes. "Tch... Like you give a fuck when I'm ready," I muttered under my breath so low that only the few surrounding me could have hardly picked it up.

"Rose," Lissa warned. I guess I wasn't as slick as I thought...

A gentle breeze blew through my hair as I slowly rose my head. I was standing in the shade. It was dark here, though sunlight shown everywhere else; it was noon. Daytime. Also known as nighttime for those of us that are Moroi and dhampirs. The hoard of people that stayed up this late to witness this stood anxiously behind me under the overhang where the shade was more consistent. If I were to be a strigoi, this would be danger zone right now. Unnatural light from a light bulb could cause a great discomfort for strigoi, but it's nowhere near as the horrendous sunlight.

I took a deep breath. "I'm ready, then," I said sarcastically.

As if my feet had a mind of their own, I began to move forward into the sunlight. My slow pace appeared to be bothering a couple Moroi. My ears picked up at their annoyed moans in the background. Their fault, I decided. If they wanted to be up in the middle of the night to watch this stupid, absolutely pointless trial, that's completely their fault.

The sunshine totally enveloped me, and at first, it was a little frightening. How would my body react? Would it still sting like a million needles were injected into me, the way it did before? Breathing heavily, there was no reaction. If anything, it felt good. I hadn't felt the sunshine (in a positive way) in over seven to eight years. And, mother of God, it felt good.

A good, solid minute went by, and nothing appeared to be wrong with me. Some members of the council seemed to notice this by the third minute.

I sighed. I realized I was getting more irritated by the second. I must be really tired, I consoled myself, I hadn't been getting very good sleep due to todays activities. "You think we could move on now?" I called to the people behind me who were staring at me in awe.

Lissa nodded. She turned to her left where numerous men and women with the traditional black and white suits with red ties stood. "Yes; if one of you could reveal the silver stake..."

I unconsciously gulped. Test number two: Touch the stake. There would be no hissing. No screaming. No reaction at all. I couldn't afford to fail this. Because, if in some odd case that were to happen, there would be no arguing. They wouldn't even put me in jail or anything.

It would be a death sentence.

I inhaled a sharp intake of breath as Dimitri, who looked absolutely gorgeous in this lighting, began to walk forward to hand me the gleaming silver stake. It looked absolutely terrifying; for I had grown up in terror of stakes. I lived and breathed it. Stay away from stakes. It was what I had been trained to do.

Dimitri nodded to me. "Take a deep breath, Roza," Dimitri said affectionately, lowering his voice at the last part. I did as told and offered my hand. Dimitri looked me in the eye before he extended his arm and placed the stake in my hands. He didn't have time to hover over or give me more time to relax. Tough love, I'd say.

A collective gasp rang out amongst the crowd, and I tightened my grip on the thing. I wasn't shocked, but the coldness of it had surprised me a bit. I looked up and met Dimitri's eyes. The left corner of his lips turned up into a cunning, yet boyish smile.

He didn't say anything. He just stood there looking hot as fuck.

I wished he had.

"Well then." Lissa sounded happy. I was proven correct when I craned my neck around Dimitri's large form and saw her trying, though failing slightly, to keep her composure. "Let's continue on. Please, everybody if you're still interested, we will be moving to the chapel for the final trial."

The Morois pulled out their umbrellas and began to head over to the chapel, on the far side of the campus. Morois weren't as terrified of the sun as strigoi were, but thanks to their super white complexion, they had a hard time not getting a sunburn. Only five minutes was all it took to get that pink pigment in Lissa's cheeks.

Dimitri walked beside me the whole time, his expression unreadable. I understood that he was in guardian mode right now, but we were ahead of the others by far. Anything at this point would bring my mood up. Even a pep-talk. I just wanted to hear his voice...

"Roza."

I snapped my head up to look at him. "Yes?"

"You stopped walking," he said plainly. I looked down and realized that I had indeed stopped walking. Dimitri placed a comforting hand on my shoulder and gently pushed me along. "I understand you're nervous."

"I–I'm not nervous..." I countered, crossing my arms over my chest. "Like you said: I have nothing to worry about."

When Dimitri didn't respond right away, I turned my head and looked up at his face. He looked like he wanted to say something, but was too conflicted to.

"You're right. Keep your head up." And after that, he stopped talking all together and the rest of our walk to the chapel was in silence.

The chapel stood, practically looming over me in a mocking stance. I cringed internally. Initially, I'd not really expected to make it this far. But standing where I was right now, taking a deep breath, I knew I could do this. I mean, what was the worse that could happen?

They could kill me.

Right.

Okay, so I guess it was a little important for me to pass this last part of the test.

Lissa came up from behind me, catching me off guard. I jumped a tad when she placed her hand on the small of my back. I turned to her to catch her large smile before it completely vanished. "Alright then, are we all ready?" She looked smugly at the large crowd. Everyone's faces were either completely enticed or completely bored. So, some didn't believe in me. Yeah, perhaps those last two tests were completely insignificant and didn't mean anything in the slightest to any of these people. Suppose one more test will turn them. Suppose twenty more.

Liss began to lead me towards the chapel. We were a good ten feet away at the moment, and every single step that we took closer made my skin crawl. I wasn't sure the exact reason; I felt uneasy pretty much all night. Soon enough, we were standing on the threshold, right in front of the wide double doors.

I let out a whimper before the doors burst open and the hands of my best friend thrust me inside.

I stumbled. I fell. It was actually embarrassing.

On my hands and knees, I looked up past my long hair overflowing my face. I looked forth to see the oh-so familiar altar. I was practically forced to attend church as a child. Basically when my mom signed me up for this school so many years ago, she checked the 'religious' box, therefore sentencing me to dwell here every single goddamned Sunday.

But then back to reality, back to the fact that here I was, Rose Hathaway, on hands and knees on holy grounds.

I heard someone behind me click their tongue. Not to my surprise, it was Lissa. Right, reality. "What did I tell you," she muttered under her breath. I heard the soft tapping of her heels on the stone tiled floor approach me, and slowly as she did, I turned around to face her. I pushed myself off the ground in a quick movement, allowing myself to brush off stray specks of dust and dirt.

Meeting Lissa's eyes, I noticed the look of approval she bestowed upon me.

"So I suppose there are no other questions?" Lissa asked with an air of superiority. She smiled smugly as she placed a polished hand on my shoulder. She nodded to Dimitri. He nodded in return, his guardian mask in place. He strode towards the two of us.

"I declare Rosemarie Hathaway to be a restored Dhampir. If there are no other intelligent and evident oppositions, may all of you hold your peace."

Shock registered in my skull. That was it. That was… it.

"That's it?" I asked in a small voice. Lissa looked down at me, a pleased look on her face.

"Rose, that's it."

Dimitri dismissed all the people, although a couple refused to leave right at once. You know, those asshole royals who just couldn't stand to see me succeed. They were pretty put off by the fact that Dimitri wasn't having it to allow them to stay.

"Thank you all for attending, but it's noon, and past a many of your bedtimes," Lissa said in a calming voice, using but the tiniest amount of compulsion to force the people to see reason and finally leave the three of us.

Dimitri turned to me and in that moment, I felt like my heart was beating a mile a minute. In that spilt second, I imagined every scenario where Dimitri would sweep me off my feet and plant the largest, most sentimental kiss on my lips. The most enticing one we've ever shared. Something that will explain "great job, Rose!" without actually having to say anything.

We shared maybe the most heated gaze in our history. Looking into his eyes, I could read him as if he were an open book. His feelings were on his sleeve like none other.

"Roza, I'm proud of you," he said, winking his glossy chocolate brown eyes at me.

I couldn't contain my giggle. "I'm proud of me, too," I said, laughing at my own corny joke. Nevertheless, Dimitri softly chuckled. He lifted his hand up to my cheek and using the pad of his thumb, brushed away a couple strands of hair off my cheek.

"You need sleep," Dimitri stated, his voice husky.

As if his words were some sort of trigger, I let out a cat-like yawn. My fingers curled as the skin on the back of my neck rose. "You're probably right," I mumbled, meeting eyes with Lissa who was now at the door with maybe seven guardians surrounding her. She nodded to me and turned around. I heard the sound of her high heels clicking until they became softer and softer until there was nothing.

I turned back to Dimitri. "We should follow," he said, turning abruptly on his heels and taking a step in the direction Lissa just exited.

Nope, I thought. I grabbed his thick, calloused hand and pulled him towards me. Catching him by surprise allowed me an exclusive advantage. All his weight was placed on his back foot, forcing him to turn around. In this very moment, I leaned up. Our lips met in the middle, and the feeling was like none other. I felt hot and cold, sexy and wanted as he responded thoroughly to the kiss.

But just like that, it was over. Dimitri pulled away, looking at the floor with a pink tint to his cheeks.

"Roza," he mumbled, looking a bit ashamed. "I'm still on my shift," he said, looking around to make sure there weren't any other people around. To our luck, there wasn't. And with that, Dimitri didn't need a hint. He cupped the back of my neck to tilt up my head so that our lips had easier access to one another. I stared wide-eyed at Dimitri's eyelids. Slowly, I slipped into the heat of the kiss and lifted my arms to wind them around his neck.

"You are going to make me lose my mind, Roza," Dimitri muttered into the kiss. I gave him a quick kiss before I smiled at myself.

"Are you saying that's a bad thing?" I asked, my eyes still closed, trying to retrace every step of that amazing, mind-blowing kiss.

Dimitri snickered. "Probably not, I think."

I went for his lips again.

"She passed? Are you kidding me?"

"Um, I thought this was a good thing that Rose was proved not to be a strigoi. Strigoi are the enemies, remember?" Adrian stated in a calm voice.

"Yeah, but…" Tasha paused. "I mean, no. It isn't a good thing. In fact, it's a terrible thing. You don't understand how much I hate that woman," she said with malice, raising her voice. "You told me you could make sure that she wouldn't pass those tests."

Adrian snorted. "Please, I told you I could look in to it. But seriously, what did she ever do to you?" he asked, raising a brow.

Tasha's cheeks blushed and she crossed her arms defensively. "Y-you wouldn't understand. She wronged me on a very basic level."

Adrian still had his eyebrow arched. "Okay," he said slowly, dragging his fingers along the smooth counter top. "You still haven't told me what she did to you… Are you making this up?" he asked all of a sudden.

Tasha's jaw dropped. "Are you accusing me of lying?" Her voice was loud and shrilly. It made my ears hurt.

"Um, no, Tasha. I never used the word lying. I was simply wondering if this is another stunt you pull for attention."

"Attention –!" Tasha raged. "Who do you think you are? How dare you act as if I am the child in this situation."

Adrian dropped his head into his hand. He pinched the bridge of his nose. "You know I don't like it when you bring up our ages in our relationship. Adrian was twenty-one. Tasha was easily thirty. "And to answer your question, I'm your boyfriend. You should be able to tell me anything."

This news shocked me. Adrian and Tasha were going out? This was alarming news, yet I still didn't move from behind the door. It had been left open a crack so I had full access to their conversation. A part of me felt bad for doing this, but since Tasha is my aunt and she gave me a key to her apartment, it's her fault. Eh. I don't feel remorse too easily.

But why would Tasha be against Rose passing the test? I mean what did she ever do to her? And how come Rose never said anything to Lissa about Tasha? Usually Rose tells Lissa each and every single one of her problems, and then Lissa goes to me to talk about them.

"You know what, I'm sorry for yelling, Tasha," Adrian admitted quietly.

Tasha shook her head. "No, I'm sorry for not being honest with you." At this, Adrian lifted his head to scrutinize her.

"Honest? Honest about what?" he asked curiously.

Tasha scratched her arm nervously and leaned back on the counter behind her. "You know, um, Guardian Belikov, correct?"

Adrian nodded.

"Dimitri and I grew up together," she stated with a far off look in her eye. "I was older so I had to look after him a lot, and well, an attraction grew between the two of us. For him, it was short-lived. He realized that he saw me as nothing more than a sister, a friend. I told him it wasn't the same for me. He didn't want to date me. At that point, I was already out of school, so I had no reason to reconnect with him. We didn't talk for years and years until only recently. Maybe a couple years back I came to the academy to check on my nephew, Christian." She smiled. I smiled too. "And well there was Dimitri." She rose her hand and dropped it.

"But doesn't Rose have a thing for Dimitri Belikov?"

Tasha nodded sadly. "Over the years I tried and tried to forget about him, but it just remained impossible for me to get him out of my head. Though he may not have been my first love growing up, he is my true love."

Wow, way to put Adrian in an awkward spot, I thought. In fact, Adrian did look a little put off.

"But in getting rid of Rose, you would be left with a single Guardian Belikov again… Which means…" he paused and gulped.

"You would drop me like that," he snapped his fingers to explain how fast, "to get back together with him." He squinted his eyes at her. "Are you kidding me?" he rose his voice.

Tasha got worked up really fast. "No! Adrian, I also love you. You mean the world to me," she said softly, reaching out for his hand. "I wouldn't drop you like that," she almost whispered, although her eyes said otherwise.

Adrian made a pained face and pulled his hand out of hers. "N-no, Tasha. I don't want to do this anymore if you're not willing to give me your entire heart," Adrian breathed out, took a step back and met eyes with Tasha's electric blue ones.

"Adrian, no –"

"No, Tasha. We're… We're through."

"Adrian!" Tasha shouted. Adrian began walking towards me, or the door. I gasped and hurriedly jumped out of the way. I hid in the corner of the dark room. Thank god the lights hadn't been turned on. "Adrian wait!"

Adrian opened the door and stormed through the room. He picked up his phone and a pair of keys before the door. At that point, Tasha had caught up to him. She held onto his arm and looked him in the eyes. They were about the same height.

"Please. Listen to me. I still love you."

He shook his head. "Sure, but not as much as him." And with that, he broke out of Tasha's grasp and opened the door, slamming it behind him. Tasha stood there for a few seconds, breathing heavily. She turned to go back into the kitchen. I sat there for a few seconds longer before I heard the door open once again. Tasha brought in a plate of cookies and a cup of milk and set it down on the table next to her couch.

"Hey," she whispered, taking a seat. "How much did you hear?"

I had been found out. I began to stand up. "Aunt Tasha, I'm sorry –"

"No, honey, I'm the one who should be sorry." She turned her head to look at me. She looked down, ashamed. "Yet another relationship, ruined." She sighed.

I shook my head. "No, don't worry about it. Adrian was a drunkard asshole anyway," I mumbled. Although, his usual drunkenness and being an insanely large dickhole act was absent tonight. It made me want to feel bad for him. I mean, after all, he just had to break it off with his girlfriend who had been essentially using him for the past year and a half.

"No," Tasha sighed once again. "I'm just a bad person. I mess up a lot."

I nodded, although I knew she couldn't see me. "I'm sorry again for eavesdropping. I only came over to see how you are doing. But, I don't think right now is the best time. Um, I guess I'll see you soon." I paused before I turned.

"Bye," I said in a tone so soft, I wouldn't be surprised if she heard it or not.

Without turning around, aunt Tasha giggled a little. "Bye, Christian. Have a nice day, I love you sweetheart."

I didn't know how to feel about how easily that came to her to say to me.

"Do you know if there is an Eddie Castile in this building?" I asked the floor monitor. She turned to her computer and began to type away. She then nodded.

"I do believe so, Ms. Hathaway," she smiled, "room 214, fifth floor."

"Thank you," I said graciously with a huge smile.

She nodded and I hurried down the hall. I was on a quest to find Eddie, well, if you hadn't already realized that. I pressed the up elevator button, but I realized it was on the top floor. I growled in annoyance before I ran to the door that led to the stairs. Thankfully, five floors isn't that high.

Once I found room two hundred and fourteen, I banged on it as hard as I could. Someone on the other side started yelling for me to stop. He opened the door and I stared at him. Not Eddie.

"Where's Eddie Castile?" I demanded.

The guy furrowed his brows. "Ed? Um, not sure. He didn't come back to his room yet. He told me he went to go hang out with Mer," he explained. He smiled seductively then. "Are you sure you came here looking for him?" he asked with an added wink. Oh god.

"What the hell?" I asked, crossing my arms over my chest. "Who the hell are you anyway?"

He smirked. "My name is Val –"

"You know what?" I cut him off. "Let me just tell you right now that I'm not interested." I said, and I watched as his face fell slightly. "Do you have any idea where Eddie might be?" I asked.

He shook his head. I turned to leave, but he called out for me to wait. "Um, did you check in with Meredith? She's his girlfriend afterall."

I looked at him. "Of course, she's the one who asked me to come here." Val looked dumbfounded, but I ignored him and strode off down the hall. I pulled out my phone… just kidding it's actually Dimitri's that I snatched when he wasn't aware. I decided I should call Meredith to tell her the news.

She picked up on the first ring. "I just went to his room. He's not there."

"Was Val?"

"Yeah," I grunted. I heard her shudder on the other side of the line.

"God that kid gives me the creeps."

"No kidding," I snickered to her.

Meredith sobered up. "Okay, well then I'm going to have to notify Alberta now," she said sullenly. I frowned. Where the hell could he be?

A sudden flashback to my dream the other night flooded my head. Shit. "I'll meet you at her office," I said before I disconnected our call. I stuffed the phone back into my pocket. Just as I did, it began to ring.

Tasha Ozera

Oh FUCK no. "Dimitri's busy, you damn bitch," I muttered to myself.

xXx

"Rose!" said Meredith happily. She was standing outside of Alberta's office, looking a little pensive about entering. I smiled at her right before I turned the knob and entered without knocking.

Alberta looked up quickly. She looked alarmed, but didn't do anything. "Rosemarie?" Meredith entered behind me. "Meredith? What's going on? Rosemarie, you understand it's incredibly rude and invasive to walk into someone's space without knocking, correct?"

I ignored her completely. "Eddie Castile is missing," I said quickly. Alberta rose a brow.

"Guardian Alberta," Meredith addressed her politely, "my boyfriend, Eddie Castile, is as Rose said, missing."

"For how long?" came a voice from the corner of the room that I knew all too well. Meredith and I turned to see Dimitri leaning coolly against a bookcase with his arms crossed.

I tried hard not to blush. "Not quite sure," Meredith piped up. "Maybe something like twenty hours?"

"You know we can't start a full investigation for a missing person until –"

"Twenty-four hours, I know. But something is rubbing me the wrong way," she interjected Alberta's sentence.

A sudden thought occurred to me. "Could we see if all the wards are up?" I asked. Everyone turned to me and I shrugged. "It just… Can we just check?" I asked. Dimitri and Alberta met eyes and nodded.

"Yes, we'll have to check the security room," she said. She stood up and walked past Meredith and I. We both quickly followed, Dimitri taking up the rear. We walked down the hall and through a couple other corridors. And holy crap, I had no idea this building was so big. We ended up going underground where tons of offices were kept. Dhampirs and Moroi alike were working at desks down here.

I was shocked. Who in their right mind would want to work here rather than becoming a guardian? I wondered.

We came to a closed off room and Alberta pulled out a set of keys. She opened the door and entered, the three of us following close behind.

To all of our surprise, there was no one in the office. "Oh…" Alberta mumbled. She went over to one of the computers and began to type in a code. A map of the entire campus showed up with different levels that were colour coded. The wards were yellow, but in one section of the grounds was there a red blinking light.

"Oh good heavens." She turned to us.

"One of the wards has been broken on the far east side of the court."

My dream… It happened.

Wow. What a late update. Sorry, I understand it has been about three months. Well, school is out. I can't say 'oh shit guys, im going to update so much this summer' because honestly, I don't know. I want to try to, though, so don't give up on me completely. I want to thank Nellyrose1994 for reviewing every chapter, you know that's the way to my heart guys. ;) im sure others of you have reviewed every chapter but she is one I noticed. ATTENTION! im going to change my name sometime soon. Plus i didnt check for errors so :p

Anyway, have a great summer. Im going to try and wrap this story up, then I might make a sequel chapter to First Class Hooker. Is that what it's called? Man I haven't been here on ages. Dude what's up with all the new changes to ff? Lol not sure if I like it or not yet.

But seriously guys, review. If you want this to continue, all you have to do is review! Did I just rhyme?

oh & btw if any of you guys are confused, the line breaks happen when there is a switch in POV, you just have to figure out who it is lmao